The present invention is generally related to telecommunications apparatus, and more particularly to efficient filtering techniques and apparatus for a telecommunications bridge/router.
Network devices which provide bridging and routing functions in telecommunications networks are known. Such devices facilitate the flow of data within the network by selectively retransmitting received data. One technique through which data is selectively retransmitted is known as filtering. Filtering is a process whereby data units are distinguished by attributes such as protocol type and group membership, and those data units which do not have a predefined set of attributes are discarded. Such filtering can be employed to improve network operation. However, the computations required to analyze data units for filtering are processor intensive. As a result, transmission of data units through network devices may be slowed when filtering operations are enabled and data flow within the network may be adversely affected.